I always KNEW we were on the cutting edge of style

Published on July 5 2005

What the heartland can offer those on the coasts | csmonitor.com

For many of the 50 percent of Americans living on both coasts, the Midwest is flyover country, best seen, sophisticates think, from 39,000 feet. Airline passengers might look out the window briefly to survey the vast, fertile patchwork of green, gold, and brown below. But most are only too happy to go back to their magazines and inflight movies. And don't even mention the prospect of changing planes at O'Hare. Horrors. For those coastal residents, the cultural delineation is clear: Things cosmopolitan are In, while those with a country setting are Out. Or are they?

Is O'hare really considered "country" by the coasties?